Does God speak to you?

[mep10391]

I have been struggling with feelings of why I can not hear from God. Does it make me a lesser Christian?

 

[Mike]

This is exactly the problem I have with a few churches within the Church that place emphasis on this. It's like prosperity preaching, IMO. It sets people up for disappointment, or worse, the feeling that they are "lesser than".

I don't personally know anyone who says they hear an audibly spoken word from God. I used to know someone who said he did, and I felt the same way you do when I was a new Christian. Why couldn't I? I felt like I had to mislead people into thinking I had. Since then, he kinda sorta changed his account of the stories to say he didn't really hear an audible message. I never called him on it. That's his thing to work out. But it did mix me up!

I believe when Christ said, "My sheep hear My Voice." (John 10:27), He was speaking to the way we will use discernment to differentiate His influence from that of demons. We will know Him and follow Him; none other. I hope you come to have peace over this.

Welcome to CFnet!

 

[yoamocuy]

I think God speaks all the time but not always in ways we expect. I can recount numerous times in my life where I've had a big decision to make and God has either given me a peace about a certain choice or He has brought a scripture to my mind that spoke directly to the situation I was dealing with. Similarly, looking back on my life in the last 4 years or so I can see numerous choices that at the time seemed insignificant but that turned out to make huge impacts in my life. I don't think I'd be where I am today if it weren't for many of those seemingly insignificant choices. In saying that, just because you don't necessarily "hear" God's voice does not mean that He is not speaking into your life or guiding you.

 

[reba]

Mike

yoamocuy

 

[Classik]

God speaks to us in many ways. He does so through the bible, the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, through our fellow human beings, and even through His creation etc.
Are there people who truly hear His voice? There are - and it is always rare today.
I wish I could hear Him audibly Like Samuel heard Him.

 

[Riverwolf]

All good answers so far.
Have I ever heard God speak? Yes, but I cannot explain in words how it is so.
To those who claim an actual loud spoken voice, who am I to say it is not so?

 

[Mike]

Riverwolf, you have a great point. We shouldn't say that someone has or hasn't literally heard God Speak to him/her. I'll just say there are very few people proportional to all of Christendom who say they have. And a Christian should never be made to feel that something is wrong in their walk with the Lord if they don't hear it.

It's always been my understanding that the Lord doesn't audibly Speak to people as he did in the OT, because the final revelation has been made. When Christ defeated death and the Holy Spirit Spoke through the writers to account for it, His Message to us was complete. This isn't to say He stops communicating with us through other means, and it doesn't imply that he doesn't have more to say to us. But it does impact the way He reveals Himself to us, IMO.

It's similar to the reason we don't see major miracles the way the world once did. Jesus was the final and complete revelation, and there is no longer the major miracle to reveal Himself to us. What more could be said than was said at the empty tomb and in the books that spoke of it?

 

[for_his_glory]

Great answers everyone. God still speaks to us if we would just be still long enough to listen. It may not be in an audible voice, even though it could be, but God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit guiding us through his word as he gives us answers to our questions or petitions placed before him. God speaks to us in the beauty of his nature, or the wrath of a storm. With all the different weather patterns that have caused so much devastation in the world I believe God is using this to speak to the nations that they need to turn back to his grace and mercy. As God used a burning bush or the jawbone of an Ass he still uses various ways to speak to us and get our attention, but it's up to us to pay attention and listen.

 

[INHISHANDS55]

Riverwolf, you have a great point. We shouldn't say that someone has or hasn't literally heard God Speak to him/her. I'll just say there are very few people proportional to all of Christendom who say they have. And a Christian should never be made to feel that something is wrong in their walk with the Lord if they don't hear it.

It's always been my understanding that the Lord doesn't audibly Speak to people as he did in the OT, because the final revelation has been made. When Christ defeated death and the Holy Spirit Spoke through the writers to account for it, His Message to us was complete. This isn't to say He stops communicating with us through other means, and it doesn't imply that he doesn't have more to say to us. But it does impact the way He reveals Himself to us, IMO.

It's similar to the reason we don't see major miracles the way the world once did. Jesus was the final and complete revelation, and there is no longer the major miracle to reveal Himself to us. What more could be said than was said at the empty tomb and in the books that spoke of it?

Mike I repectfully disagree . God does heal people today. He also said signs and wonders including healing people would follow those who follow him. He said that people would do these things in his name. It is the Holy Spirit operating and it has not stopped since Pentacost.

 

[FrustratedForumer]

I don't know about the rest of you, but God talks to me every second of the day. Maybe not in words, but in what is seen every where around me. In the things that others do, in all of the living things that we have around us.

Too many times we are too busy looking when it is right in our face. Let go, and Let God be God!

 

[Danus]

I don't know about the rest of you, but God talks to me every second of the day. Maybe not in words, but in what is seen every where around me. In the things that others do, in all of the living things that we have around us.

Too many times we are too busy looking when it is right in our face. Let go, and Let God be God!

I can best relate to this as well. I'd say I hear more from God when I'm "tuned in" to God, and he reviles himself to me through many ways; scripture, actions and words of others, circumstance.

Sometimes when I'm struggling with something, or my heart is heavy in some way, I find God speaking to me the most in bits over time through prayer. It's less for me about how or when God speaks to me, and more about how I speak to him. I let the emphasis of communication with God be on me first because his answers to me are quick and easy. However, my needs are not often known to me. I think God wants us to explore ourselves deeper before he just hands over something to say. Maybe the question should be turned around to ask.."Do we speak to God?"

 

[childeye]

When you feel compassion or empathy God is talking.

 

[Rageprophet]

WEll God speaks to me but it nots like some might think, the clouds don't open up there in no James Earl Jones voice and time does not stop, instead while most times he speaks to me through what some would consider my conscience but other times there is a dinstinct silence and a discernable voice where God tells me something that he wants to make sure I get normally something along the lines of that is enough of that at which point I repent, but it would by no means signify anything other than this God raises each of his children differently just as we do in accordance to scripture ie raise up your children in the way they should go. We are not all going to go the same direction God has diffrent plans for all of us and will use each of us in diffrent areas and we are also not all responsive to the same types of correction, discipline or direction so God needs to reach some of us by a diffrent means than he uses on others of us for better or worse that is yet to be seen but it just may not be a way that God feels he needs to reach you by. For some God can use his scripture to speak to them and get all the response he requires for others like me that tend to be more like Paul I have to be brought in the back room and spanked before I get the message. That was the long answer the short answer is no that does not by any means make you less of a Christian.

 

[Mike]

Mike I repectfully disagree . God does heal people today. He also said signs and wonders including healing people would follow those who follow him. He said that people would do these things in his name. It is the Holy Spirit operating and it has not stopped since Pentacost.

I don't disagree with you at all! The more tuned in, the more we see Him making Himself heard. My point was that I don't think there are too many people literally hearing the voice of God in an audible sense. As for miracles, I know they happen. I was referring to the major miracles, where God's Power was seen by millions. A person would have to be very blind to things around them not to see that miracles happen everywhere.

 

[Nick]

Mike I repectfully disagree . God does heal people today. He also said signs and wonders including healing people would follow those who follow him. He said that people would do these things in his name. It is the Holy Spirit operating and it has not stopped since Pentacost.

I am not denying that God heals people today, but remember that Satan heals people too. I think it wise to approach matters of miracles today carefully.

On the question of God speaking - yes, God speaks to us today, though perhaps not in an audible voice. Perhaps He does to some, but I would think that rare. The only way I can explain the way God speaks to us is that the Holy Spirit moves and guides us.

 

[Classik]

I am not denying that God heals people today, but remember that Satan heals people too. I think it wise to approach matters of miracles today carefully.

On the question of God speaking - yes, God speaks to us today, though perhaps not in an audible voice. Perhaps He does to some, but I would think that rare. The only way I can explain the way God speaks to us is that the Holy Spirit moves and guides us.

I agree with you. The devil performs miracles and still speaks to people today. I thank God for the Holy Spirit He gave us. Discernment is possible!

Out of a million people you Could just find a single person who hears the voice of God audibly. Most of the people are complete unbelievers whom God (and for the purpose of conviction) spoke to in their stiff unbelief. I have heard the testimonies of such men (one was demon possessed before God touched him) who heard.
Some say it depends on their level of intimacy or relationship with God. I won't disbelieve them.
The rarity is simply obvious - and thank God that 'not hearing him audibly' does not imply we lost our 'sonship' with God. We are still His children.

 

[Nick]

I agree with you. The devil performs miracles and still speaks to people today. I thank God for the Holy Spirit He gave us. Discernment is possible!

Out of a million people you Could just find a single person who hears the voice of God audibly. Most of the people are complete unbelievers whom God (and for the purpose of conviction) spoke to in their stiff unbelief. I have heard the testimonies of such men (one was demon possessed before God touched him) who heard.
Some say it depends on their level of intimacy or relationship with God. I won't disbelieve them.
The rarity is simply obvious - and thank God that 'not hearing him audibly' does not imply we lost our 'sonship' with God. We are still His children.

And if our relationship with God was based on our "feelings" then none of us would be saved.
Thank God for His Grace and Mercy! :amen

 

[mep10391]

THANK YOU so much everyone for answering my question. :D
The responses have really offered me some guidance. I apologize for not repying sooner, for some reason I thought my threads where not posting and I didnt get any email notifications.
Its so obvious that im a noobie, bare with me:p

 

[mep10391]

thank you for all the responses.

 

[michaelwriting]

Umm...YEAH! He is speaking quite often, but we don't like to listen to him. That's the human condition. "For God speaks once, yes twice, but man regards in not." Job 33:14

He is also wise enough to not hound us if we are unwilling to listen or if we didn't do the first things he told us to do. As a father myself, I spent too much time nagging my kids and getting bent out of shape when they didn't listen. I now understand some wisdom to let them be who they are, yet I still make decisions of what I am going to do as the parent. I don't 'control' my children. They have free will. But I control me and my actions (which might include setting boundaries and consequences in response to their behavior). This is self control vs manipulation. God is not controlling, though he is 'in control' (another subject).

The thing is, we have our own plans, desires, and will. When God introduces his will into our lives, it is often in conflict with what we want or what we expect. We can either choose to surrender to his will, or to reject his will and turn to the other distractions or attractions in life. I know there have been a lot of times when God's plans didn't agree with mine, and it was easy to just steamroll over God's ideas.

Instead, I need to remain open and be willing to surrender my life and my will to God's care and control.

God be with y'all